Samidare wa i koso nerarene hototogisu yobukaku nakamu koe o matsu tote - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

五月雨は寝こそ寝られね郭公
夜深く鳴かむ声を待つとて

Roma-ji: Samidare wa i koso nerarene hototogisu yobukaku nakamu koe o matsu tote
English Translation: In the summer rains
sleep will not come to me at all,
for I am waiting,
cuckoo, for that voice of yours
that may sing deep in the night.
Meaning: In the season of early summer rain I cannot sleep at all, for I am waiting for the cuckoo's voice that may sing deep in the night.
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 118

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
On nights of early summer rain, the poet cannot sleep, because he is waiting for the cuckoo to sing late at night. The poem expresses a heart that goes on waiting for the voice through the long, rainy night.

First line, "samidare wa," means "in the time of early summer rain," taking up "kono samidare ni" from the preceding poem and continuing the poems on the summer rains.
Second line, "i koso nerarene," means "I cannot sleep," with the emphatic particle "koso" resolved by "ne," the realis form of the negative auxiliary "zu." The poem pauses here, in inverted order with the second half.
Third line, "hototogisu," is the cuckoo whose late-night song is awaited.
Fourth line, "yobukaku nakamu," means "that will sing deep in the night," with "mu" as an auxiliary of conjecture. Like "yobukaku" in 96 and 105 of this book, it sings of the cuckoo late at night.
Final line, "koe o matsu tote," means "because I wait for its voice," giving by inversion the reason the poet cannot sleep. In the poems that follow, the theme turns to resenting the cuckoo's voice on sleepless nights.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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